Letting go of the Past
by Shinji Shazaki
Summary: Mini Contest: When you review, put in a guess of an item(s) that might be in "The Box".  When someone gets a correct guess, I may write a fic pertaining to "The Box".  "The Box" is the box the Digi-destined gave Shinji people! Merry Christmas to all!


Letting go of the Past

[A/N: Just thought I'd write a Christmas where no one suffers (Not even Davis or Shinji!).]

[Disclaimer: Don't own.]

Christmas day had almost come. It was December 24, and the Digi-destined, new and older, were gathered at Mimi's family cabin in the mountains.

"I don't get it, Kari." Davis muttered as he and his friend clambered down from the attic with boxes, "I thought you sent Ken an invitation to join us up here." "I did." Kari assured him, "I guess he doesn't really want to come."

"Ken?" Wormmon asked softly, snuggling against Ken's shin. Ken remained silent, staring at the message on his computer screen. "Why?" he pondered aloud, "Why would they want me to spend the holidays with them after all I've done?" "But they've forgiven you." Wormmon murmured, "Don't you want to?"

It was a rare and great occasion for the holidays. Using Shinji's hacking abilities, and Izzy's sheer knowledge of computers, the two had gotten the digimon into the Real World for a while. "Let's find the best tree out here!" Tai laughed. "Yeah!" Matt called. The two CLOSE friends hurried off, Gabumon and Agumon tailing close.

"The snow is always so beautiful…" Yolei sighed happily, standing ankle-deep in the white flakes. Without warning, a snowball smacked the side of Yolei's face and hit off her glasses. Davis' laugh rang out from a good distance away. Yolei knelt down and groped around for her glasses. "Oh, darn it!" she groaned, feeling around. "Here." a kindly familiar voice said. Feathers brushed her fingers and her glasses were in her hands again. Yolei put on the glasses and looked up right into the smiling face of Poromon.

Yolei hid a blush and said, "Thanks." Poromon smiled a little wider.

"This stuff is freezing!" Upamon's teeth chattered in the frigid cold of the snowy winter, "What's it called again?" "Snow." Cody said simply as he rolled a large ball up. "Say, what are you doing?" Joe asked. Cody blushed a little in embarrassment and replied, "Building a snowman." "Sounds like a lot of fun!" Mimi appeared from behind Joe, "Mind if I help?" "Sure!" Cody agreed, "I'll need some help getting on his head!" Mimi giggled and Joe chuckled at the joke and started to help Cody build his snowman.

Off in the vast forest, Tai, Matt, Agumon, and Gabumon were looking hard for the perfect tree. "How's this?" Agumon asked. The tree was rather lopsided. "No…" Tai and Matt agreed. Gabumon jogged over to one and tried. It was too tall to fit in the cabin. "No…" the humans said again. "Hey, Matt!" TK's voice called out. The blonde guitarist turned and looked at his aspiring basketball star brother. TK and Patamon were standing by a great tree. "How's this one?" he asked.

"That one looks great!" Gabumon said in his oriental voice. "Fantastic!" Agumon agreed. "Then that's the one!" Tai laughed. TK and Patamon grinned at each other. "PEPPER BREATH!" Agumon shouted. The tree was felled instantly and the group, including TK and Patamon, started to haul the tree back to the cabin.

"A little to the left…" Izzy called up to the one person daring enough to hang lights on the cabin. "Why are you such a darned perfectionist?" Shinji called back down. "That looks great so far!" Sora said to Izzy, walking up. "Yeah, we're almost done." the red-haired genius muttered. Shinji stood up on the (rather icy) roof and sighed. "That's it." she called down, "How does it look?" "We won't be able to tell until tonight!" Izzy called back. Shinji rolled her eyes and started towards the ladder. Of course, the roof was icy, and her boot slipped.

Even though Shinji fell off the roof, she didn't hit the ground. "Hello, Aly McBeal." Myotismon chuckled.

Tai, Matt, TK, and the digimon heard a weird sound, much like a jet going at top speed. Then, with a loud 'WHUMP', a nearby tree, about fifteen feet from the cabin, nearly fell over.

"…pain…"

The group looked around the tree and found Myotismon, face down in the snow, with a throbbing red fist-mark on his cheek. Off by the cabin, they could see Shinji, a vein throbbing on her forehead. The six figured it wasn't all that wise to ask what had just happened.

"Hey, we got the tree!" Tai yelled from the forest. The group all hurried up to help Matt and the others get the tree into the cabin.

"We found all the ornaments!" Davis said happily as the others pulled in the tree. "Great!" Mimi giggled, "Now let's get the tree decorated before sundown!" Thus, the shorter of the Digi-destined, Kari, Cody, Izzy, and most the digimon started to trim the lower area of the tree. Tai, and most the others worked on the middle area, and the tallest (not to mention most flexible) of the group worked at the top. Those were Joe, Shinji, and Myotismon.

Yolei was making sure that a string of popcorn was hanging properly on a few branches, when a white-gloved hand stole around and started to grab the popped kernels of corn. Using a technique she learned from Cody, Yolei took a twig from the tree and sharply whacked the person's hand. "Ouch!" Davis yelped, wrenching his hand back. Yolei tossed the twig back into the needle-dotted fray of the tree and continued working.

"Is this food?" Demiveemon asked sweetly. He was looking at a bright red glass ornament, thinking it was an apple. He reached out to grab it, but Kari pulled him away just in time. "No, no." she giggled, "That's not food. If you try to eat it, you'll get hurt." Demiveemon groaned sadly. "Don't worry, buddy!" Davis laughed, "There'll be lots of food tonight! Matt's cooking too!" Demiveemon immediately perked up.

The tree was almost done. Now all they had to do was put on the star. "Davis." Tai said, holding out the star. "M-me?" the goggle-wearing boy asked. "Yeah!" Sora agreed, "It's a tradition for the Digi-destined!" "When we're all together for Christmas, the leader puts the star on the tree, no matter how clumsy they might be!" Shinji joked, clapping Davis on the shoulder. Davis gulped and chuckled weakly.

He slowly went up the ladder and, careful as he could, placed the star right where it should be. When he got back down, everyone cheered. Kari even gave him a little kiss on the cheek. Davis was so happy he started to dance. Right towards the tree.

"POISON IVY!" Palmon shouted. Her green and red vines wrapped around Davis and yanked him away from the tree. The whole group laughed a bit and Palmon let Davis go.

Ken was still thinking hard as he could. "Maybe I should let go of the past." he murmured.

It soon became dark and Izzy ushered everyone outside. "W-what are we doing?" Joe asked through chattering teeth. "Looking at this!" Izzy said enthusiastically. He flicked a switch and the lights he and Shinji had been working on for the whole day flashed on. The digimon were in awe at the display of colored lights.

"Not half bad." Izzy said with a smile to his hacker friend. "Oh yeah." Shinji replied.

Back inside, the older kids were tasked with one of the weirdest things ever.

"You. Want us. To. Read you a guys a story. Just before you go to sleep." Tai blinked. TK, Kari, Yolei, Cody, and Davis nodded. The older kids face-vaulted.

"But it's way too early for you guys to go to sleep." Sora delayed, "What should we do till then?" Matt grinned suddenly and looked at Shinji fiercely. "I didn't destroy anything of yours!" Shinji said without warning, "What?" "You play us something." Matt dared with a smirk, "Something Christmasy!" "On what? The tree?" Shinji asked sarcastically, "And besides, I don't know how to play anything!" "I've heard you play the violin." Cody piped up.

Matt turned back from Cody and grinned wider at the expression on Shinji's face. Her eyebrow was twitching in rage and she was white. "And how fortunate that someone remembered to bring a violin." Tai smirked, holding up _Shinji's_ personal violin. Shinji hung her head in defeat. "Remind to choke you with the strings when I'm done." she growled, grabbing the violin.

Everyone got settled down for (hopefully) a good tune and Shinji started to play. Not very expected, considering all the time she put into hacking, Shinji played an excellent 'Silent Night' (A/N: ^_^). The tune was long, but extremely good, and the Digi-destined got pretty drowsy from it.

"We're going to bed." TK yawned, speaking for the younger Digi-destined. "Right." Tai said with a smile. He went into the younger kids' room and the others could hear the faint telling of an American tale that was called _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ (A/N: Double ^_^!). By the time Tai had finished the story, the younger kids were all asleep, as were the digimon. He smiled and stumbled from the room, half-asleep himself.

Most the older kids had gone to bed already, and the digimon too. Tai didn't notice anything except the door to the room where the older kids stayed, and flopped down in his bed immediately. In short, he didn't notice that Shinji and Myotismon were still awake.

"Did you sneak Sake into everyone's drinks?" Myotismon asked jokingly. "Maaaaybe." Shinji replied, running her finger around on his chest. Myotismon looked at the girl in his lap with a questioning look. She giggled a bit and looked back. He chuckled and shook his head. "It was nice. Getting to be with you for the holidays I mean." the digimon muttered.

Shinji nodded and lay back onto his chest. Of course, the only reason Myotismon really brought up the subject of Sake-sneaking was that he had snuck some Sake into _Shinji's _drink. Not for reasons that one might think!

He waited for about two seconds more, and Shinji had fallen asleep. With her constant nights of hacking and surfing the Net, and with the help of a little Sake, Shinji was NOT going to wake up until the morning.

Myotismon pushed the human into a sitting position and stood up. He lay her back down, pulled a blanket over her, and walked out of the room. More specifically, outside.

The Virus digimon knelt down and quickly grabbed a handful of snow. He held it tight in his shut hand, and was about to open it back up, when the humming of a bug's wings reached his ears. He looked up and smiled a bit as the form of a certain digimon, with a human riding, appeared in the bright full moon.

Shinji was sleeping deeply when someone, namely Davis and Demiveemon, tapped her head hard. "Go away or I'll break your nose…" she murmured, half-sleeping, and half-hung-over.

Then, someone pulled her up and hugged her tight. Angered from being woken, and having a headache, Shinji reeled back her fist to break said person's nose.

"Hey now, you hit me yesterday." Myotismon said flatly, "And it's Christmas. No hitting." "Shut up, Sake-slipper." Shinji growled. The digimon grinned and walked around from behind the couch and sat down. Davis started to laugh harder than he ever had before. Myotismon had taken off his mask, and put on the weirdest thing for him.

A Santa hat.

With a 'WHOP', Myotismon smacked Davis against the floor. The digimon grinned and turned back to his partner. 'CLICK' went Kari's camera. The twelve-year-old had her camera out and was smiling. "That was cute!" she laughed.

In about two seconds, all the Digi-destined were around the tree, still in their pajamas and ready to open gifts. "Now, before we start, I want to bring something in here." Myotismon held up a hand. "What?" TK asked. "Is it a big bag of candy?" Demiveemon asked. "No…" Myotismon said, sweatdropping, "But something good none the less." He whistled and the door creaked open.

"Uh, hi." Ken stood there, Wormmon at his side. "You came!" Kari giggled. Ken simply blushed and walked over. He had a bag slung over his shoulder and dropped it on the floor in the middle of the group. Ken had never seen Shinji before, and was generally dumb-founded when he saw her. "Uh, I'm sorry." he sighed, "I didn't know that there was another Digi-destined. I didn't get you anything." Tai elbowed him in the side and whispered, "Don't worry. We older kids have that covered."

"OK, leaders first!" Matt clapped his hands together. The group all forked over their gifts for Tai and Davis.

Tai went first. He opened Matt's gift at once. "Wow, new goggles!" he laughed. "Found an exact copy!" Matt blushed a bit. Tai put the goggles on immediately. Next was a gift from Davis. It was a pair of goalie gloves. "You know, in case you have to play that position!" his counterpart explained. Then was Sora and Mimi's gift. They pitched in together and got the best soccer ball on the market.

"I'll use it as soon as possible!" Tai promised. He picked up Yolei and Joe's gift next. It was a medical kit made up especially for the soccer player. Cody was next. "I personally made it." Cody grinned. Tai unwrapped the gift and sweatdropped. "It's… An alarm clock." he said.

"Not just any clock!" Cody said indignantly. "You set it on when you're studying anything and it can tell when you fall asleep." Izzy explained. "Yeah, it slaps you awake!" Tentomon said. Everyone sweatdropped, but Tai grinned at the gift.

He turned to the two computer geniuses. "Well?" he inquired. "This is Davis' and yours." Shinji smirked, handing Tai an envelope. Tai sweatdropped a bit and opened the envelope. Davis looked over his shoulder and his eyes shone over with tears. "How the heck did you get season tickets to soccer?" Tai asked. Shinji just looked away with a grin.

I could go in depth to everyone's gifts, but that would take more than ten pages. Anyway, everyone was wondering what was in the large bag that Ken brought. "This is a gift for the digimon really." the genius muttered. He opened the bag and let the top fall away to reveal…

"FOOD!" all the digimon screamed. The digimon, excepting Myotismon, leapt forwards towards the food. Their partners held them back and told Ken to tie up the bag. He did and the digimon moaned. "Not until tonight!" Tai yelled. The digimon calmed down and sat fidgeting.

"Uh, what?" Shinji asked. The older kids, not including TK and Kari, were staring at her with a rather odd look. "You give us the things we want, without even knowing, and you expect nothing in return?" Matt asked with a glance. "I didn't ask for anything." she replied with a stern look.

"Ah, too bad." Joe laughed. He shoved a somewhat large box out from a dark corner. The hacker blinked in utter amazement. Tai and Matt passed the box to her with an exceedingly large grin. Before she could even touch it, Izzy grabbed her arm. "Um, why don't you wait until you're alone. With Myotismon. To open that." he said jerkily. "Why?" Shinji asked.

With a rather large blush, her computer genius friend whispered some things into her ear. He pulled away, Shinji blinked, and said, "Oh…" Matt let out a derisive snort, which Shinji promptly socked him in the mouth for. She was about to kick him in an unpleasant place, but Myotismon pulled her back and hugged her hard.

"Gee, how funny that you guys gave her those." he chuckled, "Considering that I'm giving her… _This_." He held out a little black box in front of the human. Everyone was absolutely silent for a bit. Finally, Davis let out a whoop and everyone followed. Shinji turned around and kissed the digimon. "You bet!" she laughed. "And just saying, my gift to everyone is that I've found a way to keep the Digiport open indefinitely!" Izzy laughed.

Off out in the snow, a black cat with blood red eyes watched the scene inside the cabin. Around its neck was a mini camera that came to a screen in front of a girl the same age as Ken.

"Sentiment, Pff!" she scowled, "Friends, lovers… They will all bow before my power!" She let out a purely evil laugh and watched the Digi-destined.

"I'll be their doom."


End file.
